The Tessa Series (1)

“I’m all grown up and can take my own decisions too!”, Tessa barked out at her mum who was sitting opposite the door in their one-room apartment at Itamaga, a community within Ikorodu town, somewhere in Lagos State.

Heartbroken at the sudden and perpetual rudeness of her daughter towards her in recent times, Mrs Teriba buried her face in her palms and wept silently as she began a mental journey of how she got here with her daughter.

***

“Where is she? Ehn? I say where is she? The witch that refused to conceive and give me grandchildren”, the noise and the bang from the gate as it opened suddenly, almost made Zoe jump out of her skin.

She became restless and started pacing the room hoping the ground would just open up and swallow her before her Mother-in-law comes to harass her as she usually does at any slight opportunity.

“Mama?! Not again na. I don’t like this act of you coming to my house to harass my wife like this”, Adura Teriba cautioned his mum as she stormed into the living room of their 3-bedroom luxury apartment at Surulere.

“Wo o (see), Adura if you don’t want trouble, just leave me alone o. I haven’t come here for you but the barren witch you call a wife,” She replied her son as she kept walking towards Zoe who was at the far end of the sitting room.

In a swift movement, Adura held his Mum by the elbow and with a stern look on his face said, “Mama, I have had enough of this! Pls, leave us alone. Stop harassing her like this, if she was your daughter, would you taunt her like this? Pls, let Zoe enjoy her peace of mind in her home. Mama let her be pls.”

The older woman remained unperturbed and just eyed her son with disgust in her face and said, “Eeee! Ma bu mi o (don’t insult me), just tell your wife to open her legs more for you and you should do the needful by giving me my own grandchildren. Once she conceives and bears me children in this house, she will know peace, but if she fails to do what I ask, she hasn’t seen anything o!” the woman said while storming out of the house.

***

“Adura!!! Haa!!! Why will you do this to me?, When we signed our pacts, we agreed on living together forever. Ha! Eh! Come back to me o, ehnhen!,” Zoe lamented as she mourned the death of her husband who died on the spot at the scene of the auto crash on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway while on a business trip to Ijebu Ode.

Zoe who was already eight months gone on her pregnancy journey couldn’t bring to terms that her beloved and most adorable husband, Adura was dead and never coming back to her. She began to wail uncontrollably and refused to be consoled as she recounted how Adura had dropped her off at the hospital before going on his trip which sadly turned into a journey of no return.

Zoe’s mum was already on ground to shield, look after and console her over her loss while she wept herself, because, her late son-in-law was just a blessing she couldn’t believe had suddenly walked out of their lives. “Zoe, biko, don’t cry again, pls put yourself together and consider your condition and pity your unborn child,” this, she said while wiping her face with her wrapper.

***

(At the graveyard)

Zoe sobbed lightly with her daughter, Tessa,5, in her hand while she stood there speechless. It remained like that for another 10 minutes but after a little while, the young girl who couldn’t understand what they were doing there spoke out. “Mum? why are you crying? Did something enter your eyes? Did anybody beat you? You did not even say anything since we got here. Mummy sorry, please don’t cry again,” the little girl said with love and concern in her eyes.

Zoe couldn’t put it together again as she burst into fresh tears and hugged her daughter closely and said, “Tessa no one beat me, it’s just that I miss your dad so much. I’m lonely and sad and wish he could come back to me, to us,” amidst her tears.

“But you and grandma said Daddy has gone to Heaven to live with Jesus and that he is resting, please let him rest, I will stay with you. Mummy, please don’t cry again, I love you Mummy, but please let Daddy stay with Jesus because my Sunday school teacher said Heaven is a beautiful place.”

Another round of tears filled Zoe’s eyes as she forced herself to smile at her daughter’s words and her heart swelled with so much love for her pretty innocent angel the Lord blessed her with.

She packed her daughter in her arms as she embraced her again, wiped her tears and left her husband’s grave.

***

(Music blasting from a stereo set from the opposite room)

“Oh, o o oo!!! This Juwon is cursed!” Tessa murmured, as she rolled from side to side while trying to get herself a suitable position to sleep.

Suddenly, she sat up angrily in her sparsely decorated room which housed her since she became an undergraduate at the prestigious Lagos State University (LASU), where she was studying Microbiology.

Angrily, she shouted, “one would not have peace again because someone else is crazily in love with disturbing the peace of everyone, especially when there’s power.”

When she couldn’t take it anymore, she stormed out of her room and banged hard on Juwon’s door…

To be continued…

Stay out of trouble, be fab and adventurous 🙂